9 ay önce

EU's Borrell tells Western allies to stop arming Israel amid Gaza war

"Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent" this, EU foreign policy chief Borrell says in response to comments by US President Biden.

AFP

The Israeli war on Gaza has 85 percent of the territory’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN. / Photo: AFP

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has urged allies of Israel — primarily the United States — to stop sending it weapons as "too many people" are being killed in Gaza.

Pointing to US President Joe Biden's comment last week that Israel's military action was "over the top", Borrell said on Monday: "Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people have been killed."

"Is (it) not logical?" he asked, in a Brussels news conference alongside Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA whom Israel is pressuring to resign.

"How many times have you heard the most prominent leaders and foreign ministers around the world saying too many people are being killed?" Borrell asked.

The chief EU diplomat also slammed an order by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the more than one million Palestinians sheltering in the Gaza city of Rafah need to be "evacuated" ahead of a planned Israeli military operation there.

"They are going to evacuate — where? To the moon? Where are they going to evacuate these people?" Borrell asked.

Israel has pounded Gaza since an October 7 attack by Palestinian resistance group Hamas, killing at least 28,340 people and injuring 67,984 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.